On a recent road trip to Catalonia, whilst heading back to Gibraltar via mainland Spain. I stopped to fill up my car at a petrol station in Albacete (near Alicante) and asked for directions. The attenant at the counter was very helpful until he saw my licence plate and out of genuine curiosity asked, "where is that car from?"

When I told him it was a Gibraltar registered car he responded with a look of shock. In disbelief he retorted with, "but you're not from there (pero tu no eres de ai)". Perhaps I was not what he imagined a Gibraltarian to look like.

After I told him I was in fact from Gibraltar he quickly proceeded to tell me in no uncertain terms that I had some cheek to be there (in Spain) after "all the trouble we (Gibraltar) were causing"

There is nowhere you can go to in Spain without having to face unsubstantiated claims generated by the constant anti-gib propaganda. I for one do not feel comfortable in Spain anymore and the the sad truth is I only had my car with me as I had set off on my holiday before the animosity started.

I live in La Linea and ride my bicycle across the border to work every day. I never tend to have any problems in the morning, I'ts unusual to even have to open your passport.

The evening is a different ball game at the moment. I normally get away from the office at about 5:45 and get to the border about 6. If you take the last two weeks as an example, I would say I've been stuck in that queue for 40 minutes + on 4 occasions, It would not be so bad if you can sit in a air conditioned car but to be made to sit in the queue with 20 year old push and pop mopeds pupping out god knows what in to my lungs ...

Also the article below is a very realistic view of how things are with the cigarette smuggling, the spanish police no who these guys are, they go through on bicycles, 10 maybe 20 times a day with their id card hanging round their neck, why is nothing done about this.

I work for a gaming company in Gibraltar and do various different shifts so I am often crossing the border and different times of the day and night. Thankfully I walk but even that has become a hassle. Its the height of the tourist season and with so many people around the delays with entering and exiting Gibraltar are often bad even if you are on foot. Of course vehicles are most affected, but it impacts us all in some way. We are innocent in all of this yet we must suffer going about our daily lives. We contribute to local economy in both Spain and Gibraltar why should we be punished?

I live in Spain. My next door neighbour and many close to me are Gibraltarians or Non Spanish. They all live permanently in Spain yet they have Gibraltar registered cars, this is illegal because they should be residents if they live here and thus pay their taxes. My neighbour buys at the same shop as me, eats in the house next to me, yet takes his invoices to the Spanish customs and gets a refund of the vat because in theory the goods in the invoice are going to Gibraltar, when in reality, they are a few metres away from me. One of those that live close to me with a Gibraltar registered car works in a Financial company in Gibraltar, advising people that they if they want to invest in Spain, or other EU countries, they should create an offshore Gibraltar company, thus as business takes place outside Gibraltar, no duties are paid in Gibraltar (nor Spain or rest of EU). His property is also in the name of one of these offshore companies. If I sell my house both I and the buyer have to pay VAT. If he sells his house, he changes the name of the owner of the Gibraltar offshore company and the Spanish government has no knowledge that owner has changed. I hope these recent events in Gibraltar result in International Tribunals deciding once and for all who the waters belong to, to whom the land where airport strip has been built belongs to, but most importantly, I sincerely hope that the tax evasion that takes places in tax havens such as Gibraltar, Channel Islands, Cayman Islands and so on, are prohibited from operating within the EU and long term they disappear completely.

As the Rock is a very small place, I parked my car in La Línea and walked to Gib. I avoided the two rows: one for entering and the other for going out. That was a limit on my purchases but two times were enough.

I've lived in Gibraltar for most of my adult life, its my home and I feel passionate about the right of Gibraltarians to choose their own destiny. Spain is a country in turmoil, poverty, corrupt politicians, high unemployment.......I could go on, but I'm sure you get the picture. the events of the past few weeks are nothing but a smokescreen.

The problems at the border are nothing new, but the level to which the Spanish government now seems prepared to go, is unprecedented (unless we want to talk about Franco of course).

How is it affecting my daily life? It doesn't much. I'm voting with my feet, and like many others, now choose to spend my time and hard earned cash in Gibraltar, so guess who are feeling the brunt of the Spanish Governments actions the most? Their own people. Local Spanish retailers who were already feeling the pinch, some I fear whose businesses may go under. c10k Spanish people who cross our border every day to find work that their own country cant offer them.

There is a sense of dread in Gibraltar at the moment, a feeling that this could turn nasty any minute now. We want the British Government to show its teeth,

show they mean business in defending our rights.

For anyone in the UK who might believe the Spanish lies about their reasons for taking action, surely if they had valid argument, they would have taken their case to the EU & UN BEFORE imposing self-regulated sanctions on Gibraltar, flying in the face of everything the EU stands for?

I'm a 30 year old Gibraltarian. I was born in Gibraltar the year after the frontier reopened, and have lived here all my life, as did 5 generations of my family before me. Much as I love Gibraltar, and am proud of my roots and my social and cultural identity, it is a small, highly populated place, and for some of us this can be a little claustrophobic. I normally spend a lot of my free time,and therefore my money, in Spain for this reason. I keep a caravan on a campsite about half an hour from Gibraltar, at which I spend most if not all of my weekends. If France or Portugal was on the other side of the border, I would spend a lot of time there in the same way.

And because I spend so much time there, I have Spanish friends and a fondness for elements of their culture. Having said that, I wouldn't want to be Spanish in a million years. I wouldn't want to be French or Portuguese either. I am a British Gibraltarian. And now, faced with a fascist Spanish government who is effectively blockading a European frontier, I am faced with a choice. I can attempt to outwit them, crossing the frontier in the middle of the night when border controls are still practically non-existent, in order to give myself the luxury of space and countryside, and of not seeing a familiar face around every corner.

But is it worth feeling intimidated and bullied over? I no longer feel safe in Spain. The PP's campaign of hate against us has resulted in heightened anti-Gibraltarian sentiment amongst some Spanish citizens. Gibraltarians are returning from Spain with reports of their cars being trashed and set fire to, and drivers are being targeted while on the road with potentially fatal consequences. It's clear to me that the risks outweigh the benefits.

What's more, I have no desire to contribute to their economy for as long as they are trying to strangle ours. Because this, of course, is the Spanish government's aim. This conflict is not about fishing. It isn't even about sovereignty. Spain knows full well that 30,000 European citizens are not going to be forced to change nationality in 2013.

This is partly about crippling our economy out of spite, but more importantly it is about diverting attention from the shameful corruption which is rife under this PP government and which, until Spanish right-wingers raised their voices in a collective cry of 'Gibraltar Español' a few weeks ago, was dominating their national press and social media. The UK and Europe must not assume that this Spanish government have any intrinsic democratic values. They do not. They are democratic in name only and now, worryingly, they have messed up with their own people to a point where they have nothing to lose. They are attempting to unite the country behind them by pointing a finger of blame at a foreign 'enemy', and like their Francoist predecessors, seem to be willing to go to any length to do so. How far will they take this violation of the human rights of thousands of innocent people while the UK and the EU continue to try to reason with them as if they were dealing with rational and democratic politicians? I dread to think.

Unfortunately our holiday started the day after the horrendous queues were implemented, so we set off a day early to ensure we didn't miss our flight. We were prepared and took enough water for the 4 1/2 hrs we had to wait to cross the border.

We are avid hikers and we spent our holiday taking in as much of the outdoors as possible, as we knew, once home, we wouldn't be able to pop into Spain at the weekends for our usual walks. This is what frightens me the most. Although I love living on The Rock, I also find it very claustrophobic and I look forward to the weekends when we can explore The Alcornocales, Andalucia's beautiful national park. There's only so many times you can climb the Med Steps! For me the problems at the frontier mean losing the countryside that I so enjoy discovering.

I am now loathe to spend hours in the sweltering heat to cross the border and spend money in the land of the rabbits.

I have several shops in Gib and business in being boosted by the queues!

Shoppers are fed up of waiting and turning to local shops for their needs.

Hatred of the Spanish in growing as we approach Gibraltar national day, sales of flags and anything red and white are selling out. This will effect people's attitude for a while and help keep money in Gib!

It is the perennial joke, or gibe, Gibraltar and the British Empire. At the gym there are always comments about it. "Britain is just down the coast." Or Gibraltar is Spanish right? When are you going to give it back?" In a bar, or pub the same, almost always good humoured, if a little tedious.

But Madrid is ratcheting up the rhetoric and most intelligent people realise this is a tactic by the PP, (Franco´s inheritors,and no lovers of the British) to distract the public from the endemic corruption this party is mired in. Not to mention the dire economy.

But none the less, there is now a palpable sense of a change in mood, as the propaganda drips down. Will it fool the people? Perhaps some, I feel a little less comfortable than before. I am angry with the disingenuous and bellicose English noises coming from the likes of Boris Johnson, who might fart in a cup, and we call it a quote.

Often Spanish measures are a good thing if you're at a local bar but this is far from the case if you are one of many in a lengthy queue to enter Gibraltar subjected to politically motivated checks. Ignacio Ibanez tried to fight off an intense interview on Channel Four recently but the presenter covered every area possible to make him squirm. These checks are not against smuggling, money laundering or identity/document investigations, they are politically motivated measures in an effort to turn people off from coming to Gibraltar. Spain is doing all of this against Gibraltar not for fishing nor artificial reefs but to maintain her claim to sovereignty over the Rock. She'll not win hearts and minds with these methods and only makes the Gibraltarian community stronger. Not only are these methods against Gibraltarians but they also harm around 8000 Spaniards who seek employment in Gibraltar. Not only have they destroyed their own economy, not only do they have corruption running wildly through the nation but they think they can put up a smokescreen and deny facts.

This will not be forgotten, people will not fall for the lies told. This is a planned attack, we were warned, the world was warned. The people of Gibraltar will not be forced into making a decision as to which side we wish to belong for we have told the world on any occasion asked. There can be no doubt that Spain will never relieve her claim over Gibraltar but she should remember that whilst she asks for the Rock to be returned that she also has colonial outposts scattered across Morocco.

I'd like to take this opportunity to than the many people who have supported the struggle we face daily from Spain, Catalonia, UK, Falkland Islands and the USA.

The Spanish are getting very patriotic and it's beginning to show. I live in Madrid and the comments about horrible imperialistic Britain are starting to get worse. I've lived here since 1995 and the antagonism is starting to undo everything I liked about living here.

I am Spanish and go very frequently to La Linea and Gibraltar, as my parents in law are from La Linea. Both cities normally take advantage from each other, and people normally are very friendly with each other . Many Spaniards cross each day the border to work in Gibraltar, while many Gibraltarians have houses in La Linea or nearby locations, or cross the border to go to restaurants or to do some shopping. Besides there are many other people from many other countries who work in Gibraltar and life (and rent houses) in La Linea. As a results both La Linea and Gibraltar take advantage of the good economy of Gibraltar.

I have seen and suffer the absurd controls the Spanish police does with the only intention to disturb people trying to get in or out of Gibraltar. In my opinion it is true that the Spanish customs officers and Guardia Civil make "forced" controls with the sole intention to make uncomfortable to cross the border. There is no explanation why it takes more time to cross the border between Gibraltar and Spain by car than to cross the border from Morocco to Spain when disembarking in the neighbor city of Algeciras.

In my opinion the whole thing is an absurd, let people from Gibraltar be Gibraltarians, and try to get the best from each other.

Fianlly. Why is the current Spanish government making all this fuss on Gibraltar? Very easy, to try to distract the mass media, so that they stop talking about the high corruption scandal affecting the popular party, currently in the government. As simple as that.

I am a 64 year old born and bred Proud British Gibraltarian. It is inconceivable that in this day and age the inhabitants of a territory are subjected to the inhuman treatment from a supposedly democratic ally of Britain. The row, as you call it, is not affecting me since I refuse to cross over to Spain for as long as it takes. The ones that are being affected more are the Spanish workers crossing to and from Gibraltar to work, Gibraltarians who live in Spain and the unfortunate tourists who have to suffer the several hour long queues. I was 20 when the frontier was closed by Franco and we survived and in fact we became stronger as a people so as far as I am concerned, bring it on.

Over the last 27yrs that i have lived and worked in Gibraltar there have been many horror stories about Frontier Queues but this time it is very different. The undertones from the Spanish Government are far more sinister and i have felt strangely fearful when in Spain. The Spanish propaganda machine has been in overdrive since PP Party has been in power and their influence is now filtering through to the normal Spaniard. Couple this with an Economy in deep recession and you can see the direction that this conflict is taking.

Shamefully the Spanish Government have no hesitation in making the lives of 10,000 of their own Electorate a misery. They are persecuting the lives of those workers and their families and many businesses that rely on revenue derived directly or indirectly from Gibraltar's vibrant economy. The latest conflict has been created by a corrupt Government that wishes to bring a small friendly community to their knees to deflect their own shortcomings.

The latest excuse is the artificial reef where Gibraltar seeks to protect it's marine habitat as does the provinces of Malaga and Cadiz which have dropped exactly the same blocks in the Name of Environmental Protection. So 10,000 Cross Border workers suffer at the excuse of 20 Fishermen.